Playing Games — Jouer à des jeux by Dawn-Michelle Baude, Ph.D.
French kids like to play the same games you do. They like to chase each other, run, kick balls and hide. The girls chase the boys, and the boys chase the girls, just like they do at your school. Even the rules of the games are the same. When you're “it” in a game of tag, you have to run after everyone until someone else becomes “it”!
Here's a list of games you'll probably want to know:
IMPORTANT TIPS TRUCS IMPORTANTS
One important and useful French word is voilà! You can use it to say “There it is!” or even “Look at this!” In fact, almost any time you need to draw attention to something, voilà! is a safe bet.
TRY THIS Essaie ceci
Exclaiming in French — Les exclamations à la française
Try using French exclamations, like Attention!(“Be careful!”) and Super!(“Great!”) with your English friends. They might give you a funny look, but you'll be surprised at how many they instinctively understand!
English |
French |
hide-and-seek |
cache-cache |
tag |
jouer à chat |
climb tag |
le jeu de chat perché |
hopscotch |
la marelle |
jump rope |
la corde à sauter |
soccer |
le foot |
catch |
la balle au chasseur |
basketball |
le basket |
hot potato |
le furet |
Mother may I |
le merci grand-mère |
treasure hunt |
la chasse au trésor |
Do You Want to Play?—Veux-tu jouer?
French kids like some games more than others, just like you do. You may like to play tag some days, and other days you want to play basketball. Knowing how to say you want to play or not is important when it comes to having fun.
Negative Sentences — Les phrases négatives
Remember the verb aimer (“to like”) from Chapter 3? And vouloir (“to want”) from Chapter 4? You can use those verbs to say if you want to play a certain game. J'aime jouer à cache-cache(“I like to play hide-and-seek”) or Je veux jouer à cache-cache(“I want to play hide-and-seek”).
But what happens if you don't want to play a certain game? You can use your ne… pas sandwich to say you don't like something or don't want to play it. Just remember to sandwich the verb between the ne and the pas. Je n'aime pas jouer à cache-cache (“I don't like to play hide-and-seek”). Je ne veux pas jouer à cache-cache (“I don't want to play hide-and-seek”).
Let's try it out. Answer each question below with j'aime… or je veux…. But if you don't like to play the game, use je n'aime pas… or je ne veux pas…. Remember to use the words from the question to complete your answer:
Veux-tu jouer au foot?
Aimes-tu jouer à chat?
Veux-tu jouer à merci grand-mère?
Veux-tu faire de la corde à sauter?
Aimes-tu le basket?
Veux-tu jouer à la chasse au trésor?
Always and Never — Toujours et jamais
There are probably some games you always want to play, right? And chances are, there are some you never want to play, as well. Knowing how to say toujours (“always”) and jamais (“never”) is important in any language! In French, they're easy words to use.
To say you always like to play soccer, use the sentence you already know, only add the toujours just after the verb, like this: j'aime toujours jouer au foot. And if you want to say you never play a game, use your negative sandwich, only this time it's ne… jamais. So if you never like to play soccer, you say je n'aime jamais jouer au foot.
